Do you see a connection between the modern ‘worship’ of materialism/money as the root of many people being in a state of dis-ease, as in it being a good example of ‘bad’ ritual? Yes, I do indeed. The American bill says in God we trust, but in fact the ritual of money isn’t about trust or order. It’s about control and power, but not harmonious power.

Government is all about ritual? Indeed, from a senate session and their rules of order to the proceedings to inaugurate a president, all kinds of ritual. It means much to them, but we won‘t necessarily like what it means. Many of those who seemingly rise to power had a long history of ritual anyway, membership in the masons as well as other orders.

Ritual can be completely arbitrary, as long as it maps the inside onto the outside where you can manipulate it and work with it? As long as it is convincing to the doer of the ritual? Basically, yes it can. I myself favour the school of chaos thinking. Acting on initial conditions and shifting precognitive thought.

Like the initial conditions are always in me (me as the center of the universe) in ritual? Yes, exactly. That is the dynamic of it, as above so below and as within so without. “As above so below” means nothing very complicated. The natural way you see in the world, that seeming autonomy it has, is in your very nature also. You come from it. Your thoughts and feelings don’t come from a void. They are a part of that grand pattern that you may have decided makes only limited sense. “As within so without” is also simple. You cannot be in the grip of any “spiritual” energy, any force inside yourself, that won’t likewise mirror itself in your environment. Those forces self express even if you try to deny them. But what you can do rather than be the man pushing the proverbial boulder up hill, you can see your part in it and choose in that context. To use the Greek Gods who lend themselves so well to explaining the mind, you can’t tell Aries no, but while Aries is busy being Aries you can pull an Aphrodite. Any of these forces is not by itself your one rule.

She might not like being pulled. True she may not, but she was wily. Because she was so attentive to the other Gods, she often exploited their blind spots. Not to do anything evil necessarily, she was just freedom loving.

Whatever you think governs your life, it’s real. It’s there, and it is not absolute. Have you ever been fidgeting with one of your possessions, like your wallet or a pen, and find that though you don’t know why you are behaving that way you suddenly get an idea?

Is that like forgetting about a problem and then the solution just comes to you out of the blue? Yes, exactly. Then you can’t remember what the problem was, and you don’t need to remember. We can use the whole world as that bowl and ink. You can still hit on some truths, but you can’t if you aren’t being aware.